If the Environmental
Protection Division (EPD) wanted to know what Georgians think about
coal ash, the agency got an earful last Thursday. People packed the
room to listen and respond to EPD’s plan to better regulate the
toxic substance. The message was clear from Wayne County: “We
don’t want our community to become a toxic-waste dump.”
I was proud so many
made the 500-mile round trip. Joining local citizens was a strong
contingency of city officials, along with County Commissioner Mike
Roberts. Several spoke and asked poignant questions. Here’s what I
said:
Georgia should
adopt strict coal-ash rules, including public notice with a right to
object when coal ash is coming to a facility. We need regulation of
where coal ash can go and size restrictions on the amounts of coal
ash. If Republic hadn’t asked to build a rail spur over wetlands,
Wayne County would soon be receiving 10,000 tons per day of toxic
coal ash without any public notice. The EPD didn’t require
public notice. It has said Republic doesn’t need permission to
store 10,000 tons per day of toxic coal ash in a municipal landfill.
The public has a right to know and the opportunity to object
to the EPD.
Georgia should
regulate and limit toxic coal ash in municipal-waste landfills such
as Broadhurst. Currently, there are no EPD regulations on this, and
that is an environmental travesty. Coal-ash owners are encouraged to
try to put toxic coal ash into municipal solid-waste landfills
because of the lack of regulation. Toxic coal ash should never be put
in wetlands areas.
Currently, Georgia
has no rule prohibiting toxic coal ash from being stored on existing
or former wetlands such as Broadhurst. There should be an outright
prohibition of this. The EPA considered this but appears to have
waffled after pressure from lobbyists.
Experts have said
that toxic coal ash is, as a matter of fact, radioactive. EPA defines
it as “technologically enhanced” radioactive—as opposed to
naturally occurring. Georgia categorically excludes toxic coal ash
from its radioactive-waste regulations, and that exclusion needs to
be eliminated. Doing so would allow consideration of the effects of
storing toxic coal ash in a specific location from a health
perspective.
Right now, even
though toxic coal ash is radioactive and contains several
cancer-causing metals, there is no safety consideration for the
storage of toxic coal ash. Georgia and the EPD need to
do a better job of “protecting Georgia’s air, land and water
resources,” which is the EPD’s mission. Vigorous
regulation of toxic coal ash is an excellent place to start
fulfilling that mission.
My final
recommendation for today is for Georgia to cut and paste North
Carolina’s law about testing drinking-water wells.
When the EPA
bowed to the pressure not to classify toxic coal ash as hazardous
waste, the unintended consequence was to give coal-ash holders a
green light to dump this dangerous stuff in places such as the
ultra sensitive ecosystem of Broadhurst. Without you—the
EPD—taking up the slack in loose, one-size-fits-all regulations,
the result will be bad for the 10
million residents of Georgia.
We urge you to
enact regulations to protect Georgians and our environment so that we
aren’t
branded as the
nation’s destination to dump its toxic waste.
We are looking to
you, the EPD, to protect us and our natural resources. The people of
Wayne
County, Southeast
Georgia and the rest of our state thank you for listening to our
concerns and requests. Our health and welfare are in your hands.
dnesmith@cninewspapers.com